Steve Jobs says he just wanted to feel appreciated when he asked Apple's board of directors for some additional stock options back in 2001 — but then things got all probey with US regulators.
Forbes has managed to get its mitts on the Apple CEO's deposition with the US Securities and Exchange Commission conducted in the wake of …

Bullshit.

Jobs knew full well the situation, the guy is greedy. He's one of the very few tech company bosses that outright ignores philanthropy despite the positive image it conveys and the fact he has more than enough money to do some good.

Jobs is about money and fame, it's his life, and if he can find a chance to fiddle more he'll take it, and this is what he did here, only on this occasion he got caught.

He's possibly the most selfish, arrogant tech. CEO there is and is one of those people who would do anything for more money and fame. If he was a good looking female he's the sort of person who'd be flashing his tits and shagging famous footballers.

Guilty as f*@k

Salutory Lessons ...... Still to be Learned?

I think I'll side with what is True rather than wallow in Bullshit..... for if it is ever about the money, you always end up losing it all to those who couldn't care less about it, and who can spend it sublimely rather than gambling it on a Global Meltdown/Banking Crisis to keep them in Charge.

At work, everyone treats me like Steve ...

... and so I really understand where he's coming from. My pathetic salary at the Rocket Group is barely enough to cover the Tube journey. It isn't about the money, it's about the total lack of respect the life-sucking dead-enders and no-hopers around me have for my brilliant abilities and dedication to the organisation.

Caution: story made by spinmeisters

My view:

The whole Apple backdating saga looked and smelled like a political witch hunt to help prevent Apple growing to a position of power against the effective cartel of dominant companies that carve up the bulk of electronics based economy. To me the saddest thing was that Nancy Heinen (Apple legal counsel) had to sacrifice her career, probably just to keep Steve Jobs at Apple. That's politics. Ever since this brush with political corruption, Apple has bent over backwards to conduct themselves precisely correctly, which includes no unnecessary disclosures, no option grants, and deeply conservative guidance. They run a tight ship.

Option backdating was not illegal. In fact it happened more or less automatically unless you inconvenienced yourself. For example if the board approved a grant and the paperwork to execute it was completed a day later, then (as unexpectedly retrospectively announced and enforced by the SEC) that was a backdated grant. This "clarification" of "grant date" caught out nearly every tech company, but Apple were singled out for special attention by the SEC. (For years, new Microsoft employees were given options automatically priced at the lowest market price in their joining month. Also illegal, but we didn't hear much about that.)

It was always clear that if options were granted at a price different to the market price, then the difference must be properly expensed in the accounts. That wasn't done at Apple (or numerous other companies), and the CFO lost his job over it. At considerable expense the accounts at Apple and elsewhere have been re-worked ending with multi-year adjustments negligible in relation to the size of the business, and changing the details of when tax should have been paid.

The issue was whether Steve Jobs covertly manipulated grant dates to his own advantage and to the disadvantage of Apple Inc (which would have been illegal). It seems clear that (a) he didn't (everyone knew what being done and agreed it before the paperwork was done) and (b) he was additionally entitled to rely on his specialist officers, CFO Fred Anderson and legal counsel Nancy Heinen, to inform him if there were anything illegal about the procedure.

As regards the "Bullshit" comment; Steve Jobs may not be a saint, or even a nice person, and he may well be selfish and arrogant, but the rest is nonsense. How he comes across is a necessary part of being a person executing a plan to change the world, as declared in 1997:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USn5t5nQWU8

I hope I live long enough to read the memoirs of those who know what really happened in this incredible industry of ours...

Now lets hear some muck stirring about the SEC investigation of Dell Inc, which is still ongoing, and the connection between Forbes (publishers of the above story and Elevation Partners who are financing the Palm Pré.

Too bad they got away with it

"Jobs has always maintained he was unaware of the accounting fraud involved with improper backdating of his options,"

Yep really reaks of Bullshit to me. Ignorance is no excuse. how can the damn CEO of the company not ask a simple question and get an answer? Yet this doesnt matter the fanbois/girls will still bow and kiss the ground where ever he steps.

@amanfromMars

2 things here AMFM:

1) Why dont you use the Alien icon anymore?

2) I miss the old you. Damn those aliens for putting yo uon the anti-psychotics,

@sleepy

"The whole Apple backdating saga looked and smelled like a political witch hunt to help prevent Apple growing to a position of power"

Umm.....WHAT???

Witch hunt my ass. They got investigated because they MORE THEN LIKELY did something ILLEGAL!

"Apple has bent over backwards to conduct themselves precisely correctly, which includes no unnecessary disclosures, no option grants, and deeply conservative guidance. They run a tight ship."

Mainly in response to the comments "conduct themselves precisely correctly" and "tight ship". Like hell they do. Patenting stuff that is prior art? Selling crap hardware for more then its worth? (Don't give me that they dont do that, I present you the evidence in one simple thing, old MAC Mini price and hardware vs. the New one in price and hardware).

"Option backdating was not illegal."

Umm yes it is if you dont notify the SEC or did you not read the article?

"This "clarification" of "grant date" caught out nearly every tech company, but Apple were singled out for special attention by the SEC."

Happens with alot of companies incase you dont bother reading the news.

@sleepy

Wake up you dolt. He's a criminal and the only "politics" as you like to call it is that the scumbag isn't in gaol. Slackjawed accountants and psychoytic bosses breaking laws is what US business failure is all about. From the criminals at enron to the criminals at apple. Just because the Apple board agrees with Jobs doesn't stop the behaviour from being criminal it just makes it a conspiracy.

As for the remarks by AC above why not choke to death earting some Malthus. That someone could actually type in something so pathetic is a tribute to PETA.

How fatboi Gore became fatter

When Al Gore was making his scifi horror comedy scary future vision thing he approached Apple with an offer to promote PowerBooks and iWork software very visually in his erm documentary. In exchange he wanted a position on Apple's board and a large number of options. He was given both. He was given AAPL at around 10% of their market value and cashed out most of it for a very large profit when he was informed in late 2007 that the banks were about to see some trouble in 2008.

read the deposition for yourself . . .

When is a contract not a contract

'Apple's chief-of-chiefs has only been paid a token $1 per year salary since his return to the company. Combined with the eroded value of his stock options in the dot-com bust, Jobs said he wasn't feeling properly compensated for his work'

Think people are missing the point here. If the above is correct then Jobs NEGOTIATED his salary and agreed by signing on the dotted line. Presumably he thought his stock options would cover his pay loss ($1) over the future years. Then the market reversed and these are a worth whole lot less. Who's fault is it ? His.....He gambled and lost.

Quit moaning about lack of compensation and get on with running Apple as you agreed with the board (And shareholders) in the first place or is this case of heads I win, Tails you lose ?

@James O'Brien

1. All the option grants were filed with the SEC, so that didn't make them illegal. At the time there was no specific time limit for filing, (but there is now).

2. I concur that they (collectively) did something illegal; however it looks to have been both unintentionally illegal, and standard practice at the time. (Like parking your car before you put the money in the meter.) Certain CEO's did indeed play fast and loose, so the SEC tightened the rules, and clarified "grant date". Compare and contrast Brocade to see what happens when there is more specific evidence. There is only one real criminal mystery at Apple - how the minutes of the non-existent board meeting came to exist, but it's hard to fathom a serious motive for that.

something else to read:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119802752164238255.html

As regards your general off-topic anti-Apple remarks:

3. Everyone files patents, but if you patent prior art and it's not picked up before filing, it doesn't stand up in court. Patent war chests are the principal way megacorps like Microsoft, Panasonic, Intel or Apple keep newcomers out of their markets. Nevertheless, Apple rarely sues for patent infringement, but is very frequently sued by patent holders with nothing to lose; they pick Apple because Apple has the most cash. The US patent system is somewhat broken, and East Texas is doing very nicely out of fostering the resulting legal trade by giving awards to plaintiffs. Apple needs their patents; look at the numerous attempts to copy from iPhone.

4. As regards Apple hardware; there's no need to buy it if you don't like it. It's clearly not "crap" these days, and while not cheap it's actually competitively priced if you match specifications accurately (not easy to do). Compare Dell Adamo with Apple's various aluminium unibody notebooks. Perhaps you consider that any saloon car that costs more than a Perodua Kelisa must be a rip-off! As regards the price of the Mac Mini - Apple's costs are in dollars and the dollar price is unchanged; when the old model was launched at $599 it translated to £348 with VAT; today it converts to £469. Blame Gordon Brown for the price increase, not Apple. Apple sets the spec for a price point at product launch to deliver a target margin; they don't generally change prices at other times, so their margins can go either way. Generic PC makers are compelled to constantly change prices to follow component and currency fluctuations even when there is no spec change.

So - I'm not an "idiot". I may be opinionated, but it's based on fairly extensive knowledge.

"At work, everyone treats me like Steve ..... and so I really understand where he's coming from. My pathetic salary at the Rocket Group is barely enough to cover the Tube journey. It isn't about the money, it's about the total lack of respect the life-sucking dead-enders and no-hopers around me have for my brilliant abilities and dedication to the organisation.

If you were to make it about the money, with a launched and raunchy British Orbital Racket Group, Hoovering up Toxic Assets Capital for AI Cloud Bases in Virtual Command and Control of MKUltra Sensitive Perceptions Management, you wouldn't be needing Tube journeys. The World is awash with Laundered Cash/Invented Money/Quantitatively Eased Funds for those who know how to Generate Wealth for Wealth's Sake and Lavish Viable Spending...... and the Present Corrupted Small Minded System will continue in Relentless Decline and Viral Meltdown because they have Lost the Knack and have No Realisation of the Paradigm Change which has Assumed Universal Consciousness Control, and which Constantly Tempers such Delusional/Aspirational/Inspirational Thought with a Continuty BetaTesting of Practical Parameters and Virtual Levers that would Ably Reinforce the Thinking that such Mysterious Temporal Control is Well Withing the Bounds of Reality albeit Powered in the Fields of Perfect Imagination and Shared Virtual Reality, just to Insure and Assure the Thought against Any and All Delusion and Attendant Blind Hubris.......... for that is what is and has been missing from the Present, which is rooted in the Past, with no Practical Regard of the Future State of Existence, and is Responsible for Ignorant and Stupid Short Sighted Man's, Spectacular MADecline and Vulnerability to Paper Currency Control. Addicted to Server and Dance to any Tune which renders Funny Money printed at Leisure for Pleasure. Control the Money Supply and Control a World Full of Abused Fools with an Artificial Power without Intelligence ...... which is a Sure Fire Recipe for Disaster and Chaos.

However, a Few Good Men and True to Reign with Sinful Viceless Virtue at Venus's Command, for such is the AIMaster Magical Mystery Turing Fuel, would Add CyberIntelAIgents to Money Suppliers in Order to XXXXtraOrdinarily Render them, Proxy Cloudy Control Levers........ for Any Other Alternate Arrangement will See them at the Mercy of the Mob and Revolting Natives Hell Bent on Brutal Vengeful Reform and that is not to be Misunderestimated because of their Assured Dire Dinosaur Consequences.

The Wheel is in Spin ..... Place your Bets, And if you Care 42 Dare and Win Win, Gamble Wisely Immediately or Lose the Pot and Everything there is to Gain whenever there is Nothing to Lose.

And there's NEUKlearer Method in that Shared AIMadness. Don't you just Love Mondays?